Hongdae

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During my stay in Korea I stayed mainly in Hongdae.

And in central Hongdae too, near the university because

that's where my grandparents live.

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It was fantastic living in Hongdae because that's where all the young & hip

Koreans go. It's famous for being filled with uni students.

The alley ways are filled with unique graffiti also because

the Hongdae University is famous for specialising in arts.

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Sorry for the crap photos. There were more better graffitis as well but can't seem

to find them right now.

There was also really great architecture in Hongdae as well.

The last photo is of a cafe? (I think, didn't get the chance to go in)

called 'Over the door'. Hence all the door nailed to the outside walls.

(

Every night the streets of Hongdae light up and all the small stores are open til late.

There's rows of clothing shops (check out the fruit loops jumper in the photo!)

and cafes and food shops. The last two photos are of this

small street soju/food shop that seemed to hold a little shrine to past rock stars.

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Out of the many cafes in Hong Dae my favourite was 'Dada Cafe'. I ended up going there twice.

If you go to Seoul I recommend you go there!

The owner is really cool - he's this old guy with long grey hair.

And I think that the workers can speak little English. Or at least the one who served me did.

@ Dada there are two small dogs who are the mascots of the cafe.

They walk around freely and customers are allowed to pat them, hug them, let them sit on the tables etc.

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The two dogs are actually a couple called Daljjae & Sambunee. The girl is pregnant right now.

My cousin said daljjae means like scrawny and I think sambunee refers to three minutes.

Forgot which dog was called which... but they're so adorable and tiny.

The girl dog is the one wearing the yellow vest. The owners shaved her legs to make it look like she's wearing ugg boots because it was winter when I went over.

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Every Friday or Saturday night Dada Cafe hosts live music.

The night I went, there was this really funny old American guitar/singer who seemed like he had been living in Korea for a long time.

I was also very lucky that night because I went when some jive (I think?) dancers were there.

I think they were celebrating some event and happened to come to this cafe.

And they danced and showed off their awesome skills as the live music played.

Because of them the atmosphere was so lively and fantastic.

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I MISS HONGDAE!!

INSADONG

INSADONG

has a lot of the original Korean architecture.

But is a really tourist place.

There's lots of Western people in Insadong

and lots of ambassies.

Also apparently my dad used to go drinking a lot there...

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The best thing about Insadong

is that it's in the centre to everywhere

and you find the best tea houses or food places in its many alleyways.

Also the trick with Seoul is to always look up.

Because there's more shops on the second, third, fourth etc. floors.

I MISS KOREA

So I went to visit the Motherland early this year.

I didn't really know what to expect, since

my last visit to Seoul was about 7 years ago.

To be honest, I didn't think I would enjoy Korea as much as I did.

Having moved to Australia when I was just a kid,

I never had the chance to grow up

with grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.

So to me, Korea was a place that I came from.

I didn't really know how to go back.

But this year my feelings changed.

I still felt like

a stranger

but I felt

welcomed

at the same time.

It was weird.

But I will definately go back.

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The above pictures are of the Han River

taken from the Haneul Park (Sky Park),

which is this

small mountain. My grandpa actually told the

history of the park. The mountain used to be

a huge pile of rubbish

that kept growing because of the immense population

in Seoul. Eventually it got too high

that they decided to use the

gas that was being emitted from it as energy

for the city and has now been transformed into an environmental park.

It really shows you how much Korea has changed over the years.

Everything has become cleaner

and safer.

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I'll post some pictures that I took of my trip.

I really wish I had a better camera on me.